YADPT: Why are we the only one?

[konichiwa]

Just came across an interesting link to amnesty.org's death penalty awareness page, which has quite a few interesting facts and a whole lot of fascinating information that, in total, made up one of the most convincing anti-death penalty arguments I've ever seen. Check it out for yourself: amnesty.org

Some of the highlights:

• In 2002, 81 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran and the USA.
• Seven countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime - Congo (Democratic Republic), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen. The country which carried out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders was the USA (17 since 1990). Amnesty International recorded three executions of child offenders in 2002: all three of them were in the state of Texas in the USA. Another child offender was executed in the state of Oklahoma in April 2003.
• Since 1973, 107 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.

Also an interesting fact is the other countries that join the USA in being the only death-penalty retentionist states:

AFGHANISTAN, ALGERIA, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BELARUS, BELIZE, BENIN, BOTSWANA, BURUNDI, CAMEROON, CHAD, CHINA, COMOROS, CONGO (Democratic Republic), CUBA, DOMINICA, EGYPT, EQUATORIAL GUINEA, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, GABON, GHANA, GUATEMALA, GUINEA, GUYANA, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAN, IRAQ, JAMAICA, JAPAN, JORDAN, KAZAKSTAN, KENYA, KOREA (North), KOREA (South), KUWAIT, KYRGYZSTAN, LAOS, LEBANON, LESOTHO, LIBERIA, LIBYA, MALAWI, MALAYSIA, MAURITANIA, MONGOLIA, MOROCCO, MYANMAR, NIGERIA, OMAN, PAKISTAN, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, PHILIPPINES, QATAR, RWANDA, SAINT CHRISTOPHER & NEVIS, SAINT LUCIA, SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES, SAUDI ARABIA, SIERRA LEONE, SINGAPORE, SOMALIA, SUDAN, SWAZILAND, SYRIA, TAIWAN, TAJIKISTAN, TANZANIA, THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TUNISIA, UGANDA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UZBEKISTAN, VIET NAM, YEMEN, ZAMBIA, ZIMBABWE

Quite a crowd, the only first-world modernized countries that I could pick out of that list were Japan, S. Korea and maybe Thailand. Did anyone know that we are the only western power that retains the death penalty? Makes you think, I guess...

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Posting flamebait like this is punishable by DEATH.

- M4H

 

[BigJ]

Guess more western countries should follow our example on this one.

(flamesuit on)

 

[Cyberian]

Since 1973, 107 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.

This is the part that I worry most about.

 

[konichiwa]

Not flamebait, just starting conversation is all. Call me bored

 

[conjur]

meh...ease the prison population...fry 'em all.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: konichiwa
Quite a crowd, the only first-world modernized countries that I could pick out of that list were Japan, S. Korea and maybe Thailand. Did anyone know that we are the only western power that retains the death penalty? Makes you think, I guess...

The U.S. also doesn't have the crushing weight of overbearing socialist governments, does that mean we're wrong on that one too?


Personally, I think we need to speed up the executions of people on death row. Stop spending some of my tax dollars on people who sitting around waiting to die.

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: Cyberian

Since 1973, 107 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.

This is the part that I worry most about.

how many people were let out of prison and killed again since 1973?